Basque Burnt Cheesecake
Basque burnt cheesecake was something I made a lot during the height of COVID. It was so in trend that cream cheese was sold out islandwide at some point. I tweaked a lot of recipes and finally ended up with something I liked - Poor husband had to put up with a few bad ones before I ended up with this haha.
This recipe is super easy - one bowl, no special tools needed (you can mix it with a stand mixer or use some elbow grease) and no overly complicated ingredients.
Oozy, creamy on the inside and caramelised on the outside, this Basque Burnt Cheesecake is really simple and comes together in a single bowl.
Makes one 6" cheesecake
- 420 g cream cheese (room temperature)
- 130 g sugar
- 100 g heavy cream (or whole milk)
- 3 eggs (room temperature)
- 1 lemon zest
- 1 tsp salt
Preheat oven to 240°C, place a rack in the middle
In a large mixing bowl, using either a mixer or by hand, whip cream cheese until smooth
Add sugar, mix to combine.
Add cream, eggs, lemon zest, salt, mix to combine.
Line 6" cake pan with parchment paper. Pour batter in and bake in preheated oven for 24 minutes (or until top is burnt, and cake is slightly jiggly in the middle).
Remove from oven and let cool on counter for an hour.
Cake will be risen out of the oven, but will sink as it cools.Serve warm, or chill in fridge prior to serving.
- Make sure your cream cheese is at room temperature, and whip it until it is smooth or you will end up with a lumpy batter.
- No heavy cream? Substitute with whole milk.
- Lemon zest is optional but I wouldn't skip it! It provides a nice fragrance to the cheesecake.
- I usually crush parchment paper before lining to ensure the parchment stays in place.
- All ovens are different, best if you own an oven thermometer, if not experiment with the best bake time for your cheesecake. I like it slightly underdone and molten in the middle, so I will tend to underbake it.
- This is a versatile base recipe and flavour can be tweaked. I made it matcha by adding matcha powder to the milk.